1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a flexible flat cable such as used in, for example, a disk apparatus (e.g., a DVD player or DVD recorder) and a method and an apparatus for assembling the flexible flat cable.
FIGS. 8(a) through 8(c) show one non-limiting example of a disk apparatus, in which a main circuit board 3 is arranged on one side of a disk player main body 2 in a chassis 1 and an AV circuit board 4 is arranged below the main circuit board 3, the circuit boards 3 and 4 being connected via connectors 5 and a flexible flat cable FFC, in which the tray 2a of the disk player main body 2 is moved in the forward direction “a” based on an unloading signal and a disk D is placed on the tray 2a, and then the tray 2a is moved in the backward direction “b” based on a loading signal to perform recording, reproduction, or erasing for the disk D.
2. Related Art
There has conventionally been proposed a flexible flat cable technique such as described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 3-33982. As shown in FIGS. 9(a), 9(b) and 9(c), for example, a conductive wire group 7 including many conductive wires 7A parallel to each other is arranged in a synthetic resin cover 96 having, for example, a lateral width H of 29 mm and a thickness D of 0.35 mm, and in which both end portions 71 and 72 of the conductive wire group 7 protrude outward from the end edges of the cover 96 by a predetermined protruding length “s” (e.g. 4 mm). Then, two synthetic resin reinforcing plates 98 are fixed by adhesive or fusion bonding from one surface at the respective end portions 96a and 96b of the cover 96 through one surface at the respective end portions 71 and 72 of the conductive wire group 7, where the end portions 71 and 72 of the conductive wire group 7 accompanied with the respective reinforcing plates 98 are to be inserted into the connectors 5 (refer to FIGS. 9(a), 9(b) and 9(c), for example).
The reinforcing plates 98 are each formed in a rectangular plate shape by setting the lateral width “h” thereof to be approximately the same as the lateral width H of the cover 96 (e.g., 29 mm) and the thickness “d” to 0.35 mm, while setting the longitudinal width “k” thereof to be, for example, 10 mm greater than the protruding length “s” of the end portions 71 and 72 of the conductive wire group 7.
In the above-described conventional arrangement, two reinforcing plates 98 are fixed to the respective end portions 71 and 72 of the conductive wire group 7 so that the end portions 71 and 72 of the conductive wire group 7 are not bent when inserted into the connectors 5, and the reinforcing plates 98 each have a relatively large size and thickness, resulting in an increase in material cost.